Siege of the Saxons ** (1963, Ronald Lewis, Janette Scott, Ronald Howard, Mark Dignam, John Laurie) – Classic Movie Review 3650

Set in Arthurian times but with medieval England sets and style, director Nathan Juran’s low-budget 1963 British historical adventure is endearingly feeble, murky, cheap-looking. It extensively reuses footage, costumes and props from the 1954 Alan Ladd movie, The Black Knight, and the hero even wears Ladd’s armour!

Jud Kinberg and John Kohn’s script entertains itself by playing a riff on the Camelot legend in a new tale in which King Arthur (Mark Dignam) is killed by treacherous knight Edmund of Cornwall (Ronald Howard) who plans to wed the King’s daughter Katherine (Janette Scott) and assume the English throne with the help of Saxon invaders.

John Laurie as the great wizard Merlin.

Katherine and the good guys of Camelot get help from the great wizard Merlin (John Laurie) and outlaw Robert Marshall (Ronald Lewis) to save England.

Also in the cast are Jerome Willis as the Limping Man, Richard Clarke, Charles Lloyd Pack as the Doctor, Francis De Wolff as the Blacksmith, John Gabriel, Peter Mason as the Young Monk, Michael Mellinger, Gordon Boyd, Kenneth Cowan and Robert Gillespie.

It was shot at Bray Studios in Berkshire and in England’s Home Counties, where locations include Oakley Court near Windsor, Berkshire, Burnham Beeches in Buckinghamshire, and Callow Hill, Virginia Water, in Surrey.

Talk about low-budget – costumes and props from the 1963 Cornel Wilde film Lancelot and Guinevere are also used, with Dignam wearing Brian Aherne’s outfit. The film also uses sequences from Columbia Pictures’ Robin Hood films, The Bandit of Sherwood Forest (1945), The Prince of Thieves (1948), Rogues of Sherwood Forest (1950) and Sword of Sherwood Forest (1960).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3650
Check out more reviews on derekwinnert.com